The U.S. Treasury Department is expanding sanctions pressure on Iranian crypto exchanges: Shelbit and Aban Tether are under attack.
The U.S. Treasury once again demonstrates that Iran's cryptocurrency industry remains under close scrutiny from Washington. Last Friday, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced restrictive measures against two Iranian crypto exchanges — Shelbit and Aban Tether — as well as against network operator Siavash Keivanpour. Notably, the regulator's statement directly points to the connection between these entities and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Money laundering scheme through Shelbit
According to OFAC, addresses linked to the IRGC transferred over $1 million to the Shelbit exchange, while more than $2 million returned to the Guard Corps wallets. This indicates a built-in system of circular fund movement used to launder income. Keivanpour himself, who managed Shelbit from Georgia, created shell companies in Poland and the UAE to obscure the trail. His wallets also sent over $2 million to Nobitex — Iran's largest crypto platform, which had already been blocked by OFAC in June of this year.
Of particular interest is the scale of Shelbit's operations. In addition to transfers linked to the IRGC, the exchange, according to the regulator, laundered tens of millions of dollars for a gambling network. Earlier, media reports indicated that $676 million had been transferred through Shelbit to Binance — a figure that underscores the global reach of this infrastructure.
Aban Tether and the intensifying campaign against Iran
The second exchange, Aban Tether, also processed payments worth millions of dollars through previously blocked services, including Nobitex, Wallex, Bitpin, and Ramzinex. The Treasury cites Executive Order No. 13902, which targets Iran's financial sector. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated in this regard that the department will crack down on any shadow financial networks, regardless of whether dollars, rials, or cryptocurrency are used.
This is not the first wave of restrictions against Iran's crypto infrastructure this year. Washington's actions follow the logic of "maximum pressure" under directive NSPM-2. Stablecoin issuers, as practice shows, quickly respond to such moves by freezing wallets that end up on sanctions lists. However, in my view, the effectiveness of such measures remains questionable: as long as decentralized protocols and offshore jurisdictions exist, Iranian operators will seek new workarounds. It is only a matter of time before we see the next wave of adaptation from shadow financial networks.